I am new to FlightGear from MSFS now using iMac OS X Lion with AMDRadeon HD 6750 M. with FlightGear 2.4.0.I am getting along just fine with the default aircraft and those that I have downloaded A320, Boeing 787, except with Airbus A340-600 I have no instruments or switches in the panel.May be I am doing something wrong, any advice and help would be appreciated.Thanks.

I'm not sure about the state of that aircraft in particular, but it's probably not something you did wrong, as unfortunately not all of the aircraft for flight gear have instrumented cockpits.

If you would happen to have some skills with 3D software like Blender or are good at some programming, or even good with Photoshop or GIMP, any help in improving the aircraft in FlightGear are usually welcome.

Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, Gitorious. Work in slow progress)

"Hello and Welcome to the forum!" Thanks for that Johan G.and also for your other comments. I have a little experience with C++ and Visual basic that's about all. I have been trying to track on the forum just where to start in understanding FlightGear code, scenery and aircraft programming without much success. I am sure it is all there somewhere it's just knowing where to start, so many abbreviations and so many variations. For example, I have not yet found two aircraft with similar file structure. A block diagram might help an absolute beginner like me. I will keep looking.

johnm0awi wrote in Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:48 pm:I have been trying to track on the forum just where to start in understanding FlightGear code, scenery and aircraft programming without much success. I am sure it is all there somewhere it's just knowing where to start, so many abbreviations and so many variations.

Unfortunately FlightGear have a very varying quality of the documentation, some things are really well documented, other are really bad documented, with most things somewhere in between.

One of the better places are actually in the installation itself, in ..FlightGear/data/Docs in several <THING>.readme text files.

Otherwise the Wiki can at times be a good source of information, but it is a bit disorganised (compared to Wikipedia), and with a bit of variation in quality of the articles.

johnm0awi wrote in Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:48 pm:For example, I have not yet found two aircraft with similar file structure. A block diagram might help an absolute beginner like me.

FlightGear aircraft, for better or worse, doesn't have a standardised file structure. It's up to the aircraft developers. The characteristics of an aircraft are defined with the property tree which is set up using xml tags, who are spread across several xml files throughout the aircraft directory starting at the ..FlightGear/data/Aircraft/<aircraft>/<aircraft>-set.xml for each aircraft.

(You can look into the property tree using the property tree browser found through Menu > Debug > Browse internal properties, or pressing "/". )

The thing with FlightGear is that there isn't a centralised project management. It's a bit of an engineering and social experiment, where everybody bring their own contributions the best way they can. I'd say i's going rather well, though one might at times think that it could progress a bit faster.

Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, Gitorious. Work in slow progress)